Abstract
Abstract. This paper presents the preliminary results obtained during the 3D recording campaign carried out in 2018 by the Spanish-Uzbek IPAEB mission in the archaeological site of Termez (southern border of Uzbekistan). Ancient Termez is an important historical city within the Silk Road located in the ancient Bactria region. The archaeological work performed at the site since the beginning of the 20th century allowed a large fortified urban complex to be identified that includes other walled enclosures inside it, i.e., a Hellenistic- Seleucid fortress founded after the campaigns of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC, several Buddhist monastic complexes dated to the Kushan period (1st to mid-3rd centuries), and a large urban settlement dated to the Islamic period which includes the city proper or shahristan and the suburbs or rabad. After the destruction by Genghis Khan in 1220, Termez was rebuilt following a different plan. Major changes involved the movement of the pottery workshops from the rabad to the previous shahristan. The research focuses on: a) the identification, study and archaeological contextualization of ceramic production centres located in different areas of the ancient Termez from the Kushan to the Islamic period (1st to 14th centuries AD); b) the integration of the pottery workshops into the general topography of the site and c) the study of their evolution in relation to the transformation of the urban design. Since the site is currently located in a military area – close to the border area between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan –, the archaeological work is restricted to specific zones and the use of aerial devices such as drones is forbidden. However, this research requires both micro and macro spatial approaches to accurately record all the archaeological structures and to evaluate the integration and evolution of the pottery workshops into the general topography of the city. In order to fill this gap, declassified images of the CORONA satellite program were analyzed and compared to historical and archaeological data. In addition, we propose a geometrical and graphical recording and distribution system of the kilns – located in the rabad and the shahristan – and the ceramics produced and used in Termez during the period studied by means of photogrammetric techniques. The results are aimed at management through open-source 3D formats and web mapping GIS libraries combined with historical satellite information that defines the different archaeological areas.
Highlights
OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE: TERMEZ (UZBEKISTAN)Termez is located on the right bank of the Amu Darya and near the mouth of its tributary, the Surkhan Darya
Camera calibration reports have not been declassified by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
The study demonstrates that the use of CORONA images represents a key source of information in archaeology since in many cases it is virtually the only one for the reconstruction of the pre-war archaeological landscape
Summary
Termez is located on the right bank of the Amu Darya and near the mouth of its tributary, the Surkhan Darya. The region of Termez is characterized by an almost flat topography (mean altitude 300 m) and a few small hills that are the southernmost residual reliefs of the Baysuntau-Kugitangtau range. The Amu Darya-Surkhan Darya floodplain forms part of the Afghan-Tajik depression which comprises a Hercynian basement formed by highly metamorphosed Precambrian-Palaeozoic rocks and by Permian-Triassic sedimentary and volcanic rocks. The city was one of the most important urban centres in northern Bactria/Tokharistan, a historical region that included the present-day territories of southern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan (Figure 1), and northern Afghanistan. The exact date of the founding of Termez is unknown. It has been related to the campaign to conquer the ancient Bactria and Sogdiana by Alexander the Great (between 329 and 327 BC) as well as dated in the period of the first Seleucid kings (Leriche 2001; Pidaev 2001; Leriche/Pidaev 2007; Leriche/Pidaev 2008)
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